Sam struck by dedication

The British

& Irish Lions

Tour to New Zealand 2017

Sam struck by dedication

British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton says he's been struck by the level of professionalism and dedication within the squad as they prepare to head to Hong Kong and Australia.

The Welsh openside spoke of his aim of leading by example with his attitude on and off the field when he was announced as Tour skipper last month and that approach is being mirrored by every single member of the party.

Warburton has been impressed with the way in which each player is attempting to get up to scratch with moves, calls and setpiece structures as quickly as possible, even though it means accepting responsibility rather than waiting to be handed things on a plate.

"The players are really knuckling down," said Warburton.

"There is a lot of onus on them to make sure they learn the calls, whether it's in the team room or on their laptops, so when you get to training you can do the business and get it all done in one go.

"Players are trying to learn very quickly and are working extremely hard to get things right straight away as time isn't really on our side.

"It's been great to see the players being so dedicated and learning the calls and picking things up so quickly. It means we should be quite well prepared for the Barbarians game on June 1."

Warburton and co trained at the Wales team base in the Vale of Glamorgan last week before travelling to Carton House in County Kildare for a second mini-camp which began on Monday.

Plenty of progress has been made already as The Lions get set for their opening fixture in just 11 days' time, with Warburton insisting that the players are working hard but also enjoying spending time with each other in the lead up to the 125th anniversary Tour.

"Training has run really smoothly," added Warburton.

"It's been a very hard-working group. Maybe that's because it's quite a young squad in general, but it's been very enjoyable.

"Everybody has had a great time in the last week and they were looking forward to getting back together after having the weekend off.

"I think we've made a lot of progress, because we've done quite a lot of organisational and conditioning work.

"If we keep on preparing the way we are, a lack of preparation time shouldn't be an excuse against the Barbarians.

"The majority of our players will have had three weeks together. So I think by that first game we should be in a pretty good place."

Why not like our official Facebook page Official Lions Rugby and join the conversation as we get set for the 125th anniversary Tour?